The importance of cleanliness has long been recognized, particularly in the fields of heath-care, food preparation, and laboratories, to name but a few. The practice of surgical scrubbing by surgeons and other operating room personnel is probably the epitome of efforts to cleanse the hands and forearms of persons working in sterile environments. Although manual hand-washing can appear to be effective, medical experts have concluded that automated hand-washing increases hand-washing compliance and reduces the risk of infection.
Touchless automated hand-washing devices are designed to wash the hands of the user and provide the proper amount of antimicrobial solution in a set time. Additionally, these systems diminish the deterrent effects of friction and irritation associated with frequent manual hand-washing. Notwithstanding the benefits and convenience of automated washing devices, difficulties still exist with verifying employee or staff use of the washing apparatus. Moreover, existing systems lack the ability to provide a complete washing. It would be advantageous to have a system that provides automated washing that may be operable to verify usage by the intended users. Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a system and method for providing automated washing, which may be operable to monitor compliance with one or more hygiene requirements.
In addition to the forgoing, problems also exist with spread of bacteria or other contagions throughout a facility based on the movement of persons within the facility. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a system and/or method for tracking and enforcing hygiene requirements that accounts for movement of individuals associated with a facility. Moreover, it would be desirable to have a system and/or method for monitoring a plurality of hygiene protocols that are associated with a plurality of different locations or network enterprises.
In designing an automated cleaning system a number of features should be considered. For example, the automated cleaning system should be capable of verifying user compliance with a hygiene protocol and also capable of tracking the movements of persons associated with a facility having hygiene requirements. Moreover, the verification system should be operable for a plurality of washing stations associated with a plurality of enterprise networks. Further, the verification system should include a computer readable medium having a set of processor accessible data structures for identifying a hygiene compliance, recording and storing compliance data, and reporting and producing a data management report (including the data collected in one or more of the enterprise networks). The verification system should also include an electronic hygiene compliance verification data signal capable of being stored on a computer readable medium and including source and destination addresses, hygiene compliance information (including data regarding a movement of a person and hygiene related actions taken by the person as a consequence of the movement), an enterprise identifier, and a compliance monitor identifier.
When designing an automated cleaning system, a method to report hygiene compliance should also be provided. The method for reporting hygiene compliance should include determining a geographic location associated with a compliance monitor, determining a monitored entity identifier associated with the geographic location information, determining hygiene compliance data, providing hygiene compliance data associated with the monitored entity identifier (including data regarding a movement of a person and hygiene related actions taken by the person as a consequence of the movement), determining report requirements, and forwarding the provided hygiene compliance data to the compliance monitor.